First, I want to consume better writing — who are your favorite writers and notable wits? Who should I be learning from?

Second, I’m looking for feedback on my writing. Any favorites here?
This also means I strongly welcome your responses — either by comment or by email, I want to know what you think!

stars+boranj@mit.edu to email me.

Additionally, it seems intriguing to me that I can’t find any info on writing classes that focus on blogging — MIT Media Lab? Harvard Berkman Center for Internet and Society? MIT you forefront-of-technology-you?

It seems like you could even teach a class that focused on writing for dissemination, to change public thought, e.g. Public Writing (we have public speaking, right?). Anyone know of anything similar to this?

And finally, quote of the day, by Mako:

“Stick to dashes — with a colon, or a semicolon, you might be wrong. Dashes are always grammatically correct.”

Sofya Kovalevikaya, the first ever woman to obtain a Ph.D in Mathematics.

On being committed and getting things done:

“Sofia Kovalevskaya (née Korvin-Krukovskaya), was born in Moscow. …

Despite her obvious talent for mathematics, she could not complete her education in Russia. At that time, women there were not allowed to attend the universities. In order to study abroad, she needed written permission from her father (or husband). Accordingly, she contracted a “fictitious marriage” with Vladimir Kovalevsky, then a young paleontology student who would later become famous for his collaborations with Charles Darwin. They emigrated from Russia in 1867.

In 1869, Kovalevskaya began attending the University of Heidelberg, Germany, which allowed her to audit classes as long as the professors involved gave their approval. … After two years of mathematical studies at Heidelberg under such teachers as Helmholtz, Kirchoff and Bunsen, she moved to Berlin, where she had to take private lessons from Karl Weierstrass, as the university would not even allow her to audit classes. In 1874 she presented three papers—on partial differential equations, on the dynamics of Saturns rings and on elliptic integrals —to the University of Göttingen as her doctoral dissertation. With the support of Weierstrass, this earned her a doctorate in mathematics summa cum laude, bypassing the usual required lectures and examinations.

She thereby became the first woman in Europe to hold that degree. Her paper on partial differential equations contains what is now commonly known as the Cauchy-Kovalevski theorem, which gives conditions for the existence of solutions to a certain class of those equations.”

Maybe this is considered popular math, but I fucking love Braess’s paradox. Basically, it states that adding a shortcut route to a traffic network can theoretically increase traffic times, counterintuitively, instead of decrease them. Crazy!

“The paradox is stated as follows: “For each point of a road network, let there be given the number of cars starting from it, and the destination of the cars. Under these conditions one wishes to estimate the distribution of traffic flow. Whether one street is preferable to another depends not only on the quality of the road, but also on the density of the flow. If every driver takes the path that looks most favorable to him, the resultant running times need not be minimal. Furthermore, it is indicated by an example that an extension of the road network may cause a redistribution of the traffic that results in longer individual running times.”

The reason for this is that in a Nash equilibrium, drivers have no incentive to change their routes. If the system is not in a Nash equilibrium, selfish drivers must be able to improve their travels time by changing the routes they take. In the case of Braess’s paradox, drivers will continue to switch until they reach Nash equilibrium, despite the reduction in overall performance.

If the latency functions are linear then adding an edge can never make total travel time at equilibrium worse by a factor of more than 4/3.”

]]>boranjWord of the Day: Autotelichttps://boranj.wordpress.com/2009/12/07/word-of-the-day-autotelic/
Mon, 07 Dec 2009 05:07:01 +0000http://boranj.wordpress.com/?p=575Continue reading →]]>“Autotelic [2] is used to describe people who are internally driven, and as such may exhibit a sense of purpose and curiosity. This determination is an exclusive difference from being externally driven, where things such as comfort, money, power, or fame are the motivating force.”

On the subject of intrinsic motivation, an outstanding TED talk by Daniel Pink:

First, Diana Eng visits MITERS and the Media Lab [3:10], wherein I play a short part at the introduction:

Next, Henrik Føhns comes all the way from Denmark, and records a longer, more documentarian piece [14:54]. I show up with a bang around 9 minutes

]]>boranjImpossible Math and Waffleshttps://boranj.wordpress.com/2009/12/06/impossible-math-and-waffles/
https://boranj.wordpress.com/2009/12/06/impossible-math-and-waffles/#commentsSun, 06 Dec 2009 17:09:02 +0000http://boranj.wordpress.com/?p=567Continue reading →]]>This past Thanksgiving break, I had the honor of joining Josh G. at his house in NYC, where we feasted for breakfast on some incredibly delicious pumpkin waffles made by Josh’s mom. Unfortunately we soon came to the very last waffle (they were quite delicious)— with me, Josh, and Josh’s sister all ardently laying claim to a piece of it. Of course, we neatly sliced it into nearly-thirds — but they clearly weren’t even thirds.

Thus began the race for Proof of Equal Trisection of Waffles, where Josh and I tried to figure out how to properly trisect the waffle, using only classical implements of geometric construction (additionally, available in Josh’s kitchen), so that everyone got an equal slice. Turns out this is pretty hard. In fact, we later discovered that his has been proved to be impossible!

“Angle trisection is the division of an arbitrary angle into three equal angles. It was one of the three geometric problems of antiquity for which solutions using only compass and straightedge were sought. The problem was algebraically proved impossible by Wantzel (1836).”[1]

Well, in this case, the proof (or would-be proof) is in the waffle-maker:

]]>https://boranj.wordpress.com/2009/12/06/impossible-math-and-waffles/feed/6boranjtrisect1trisect2Announcing the Official Launch of PlushCuffs!https://boranj.wordpress.com/2009/12/03/announcing-the-official-launch-of-plushcuffs/
https://boranj.wordpress.com/2009/12/03/announcing-the-official-launch-of-plushcuffs/#commentsThu, 03 Dec 2009 04:04:49 +0000http://boranj.wordpress.com/?p=558Continue reading →]]>I’m happy to announce that PlushCuffs are now officially on sale, at http://plushcuffs.com

Finally, here’s a way to sleep well on airplanes! PlushCuffs slip around your wrist, so you get them exactly where you feel comfortable, and your arms will never fall asleep.

PlushCuffs are incredibly lightweight, pack small, and make it easy for you sleep comfortably in a natural position. They are perfect for travel, or even for just grabbing quick naps while on the move.

Word, readers! Big thanks to all the encouraging comments on the blog — you made this happen!